Saturday, December 12, 2015

Adolfo Bruno's 2003 murder has been thoroughly vetted in the courts
and news reports over the past 12 years, but new light has been shed on
the case and the workings of the Springfield mob with a treasure trove
of new information.
Two of the eight convicted defendants – former West Springfield mob
enforcer Fotios "Freddy" Geas, and onetime acting Genovese Mafia boss
Arthur "Artie" Nigro, of Bronx, NY, – have filed fresh motions asking a
judge in U.S. District Court in Manhattan to vacate their life
sentences. Among the court filings related to those appeals, new details
about government witnesses have emerged, including New York's John
Bologna and local strip club magnate James Santaniello. Also, retired
FBI Agent Clifford Hedges, was prompted to speak out about his
controversial report on Bruno that has been billed as the final trigger
that sent the Bruno murder conspiracy in motion.
SPRINGFIELD — It's been a dozen years since this city was roiled by a
Mafia-fueled crime spree that peaked with the 2003 murders of crime
boss Adolfo "Big Al" Bruno and low-level associate Gary Westerman.
Bruno was killed "cowboy style" in a downtown parking lot by a paid
gunman bent on revenge, at the behest of scheming gangsters intent on a
power play. Westerman was shot, smashed in the head with a shovel and
dumped in a ditch in Agawam by fellow criminals he believed were his
allies.
It's been four years since three men were tried, convicted and
sentenced to life in prison for their respective roles in one or both
killings. Onetime acting Genovese crime family boss Arthur "Artie"
Nigro, formerly of Bronx, NY, and West Springfield brothers Fotios
"Freddy" and Ty Geas stood trial in U.S. District Court in New York City
in 2011. They were found guilty by a jury of a host of crimes including
murder, racketeering and extortion.
The government made its case with three of the defendants'
co-conspirators. They included two "made guys" in the
Genovese-afilliated Springfield Crew plus one "crash dummy" from
Westfield who carried out violent crimes for them. Nigro was pulling the
strings in New York and gave the green-light for Bruno's murder,
witnesses said.
The multi-state prosecution decimated Greater Springfield's organized
crime terrain and temporarily jammed a lid on its trappings: extortion,
widespread sports-betting and a general bully culture.
But all the years that have passed and law enforcement manpower
aside, the case is still, in theory, a live issue. Freddy Geas filed a
motion to vacate his sentence in May, arguing his defense had been
hampered by ineffective counsel and that he had been robbed of a plea
deal, among other things. His motion was rudimentary and boilerplate,
clearly written by the hand of a penniless inmate serving a life
sentence in a high-security prison in West Virginia with the possible
assist of jailhouse lawyers.
Nigro's motion, on the other hand, was persuasively written and
carefully prepared by prominent Wall Street lawyer Ruth Liebesman. It
was filed in June. It offers a list of exhibits that provides a rare
glimpse into law enforcement's handling of informants: namely John
Bologna, a mid-level New York gangster who bounced between crime
families while an informant for the FBI; and James Santaniello,
Springfield's version of Howard Hughes - wealthy, stealthy and somewhat
reclusive, also a law enforcement mole.
Obtained by The Republican, the material will be highlighted over four stories.
Liebesman's motion argues that despite having three attorneys at
trial, Nigro received a woefully inadequate defense. According to Nigro,
wily federal prosecutors dumped thousands of pages of witness testimony
"on the eve of trial" with hidden gems of exculpatory evidence inside,
which were all but unmanageable given the timeline.
Buried in this information are previously undisclosed details about
Santaniello's business holdings, his coziness with authorities - plus
Bologna's longtime deception straddling the mob world and his
partnership with the Feds.
The onetime Bronx boss argues that his trial counsel fell short,
first, by failing to make more hay with the cross-examination of
Bologna, Nigro's former right hand who was secretly working as an FBI
informant since 1996 while committing all the crimes gangsters cling to.
It took 14 years for the Feds to disavow him, and, only after his role
in the Bruno murder conspiracy came to light through other witnesses.

"Bologna was the FBI's New York office's
answer to Whitey Bulger, the crime lord who committed and ordered
numerous murders and acts of violence while an FBI informant in Boston
over a period of many years," Liebesman's motion reads.

"Bologna was the FBI's New York office's answer to Whitey Bulger ..." ~ Attorney Ruth Liebesman

James "Whitey" Bulger, is serving a life sentence for 19 murders he
committed while heading up Boston's Irish Mob crew, the Winter Hill
Gang. Bulger committed crimes unchecked while acting as an informant for
the FBI and feeding federal authorities information on his rivals in
the Italian Mafia.
His former handler, John Connolly, also a childhood friend, is
serving a 40-year prison sentence in connection with his ties to Bulger
and the Winter Hill Gang. Connolly was in 1999 convicted of tipping
Bulger to pending investigations and indictments, which prompted Bulger
to flee Boston in 1994. Bulger remained in hiding at the top of the
FBI's Most Wanted list until 2011, when he and his girlfriend were
captured in California.
There have been no accusations that the FBI in New York knew about
Bologna's specific criminal dealings in Western Massachusetts. An agent
testified at Nigro's trial that Bologna simply hid things and lied to
the agency during dozens of briefings. However, previous reports law
enforcement indicate Bologna was tipped to an investigation into Mafia
figures in Greater Springfield, where he had been regularly visiting in
2002, and abruptly stopped traveling here.
Liebesman argues in her motion that Bologna was the one who ordered
the hit on Bruno - not Nigro - and orchestrated a myriad of extortion
schemes in Springfield after Bruno was appointed boss of the city.
Another player she highlighted to bolster Nigro's case was
Santianiello, local czar of strip clubs and nightlife, with extensive
business holdings in his family members' names. He inked a murky deal
with federal law enforcement authorities in 2010 - with unspecified
benefits.
All the while, Santaniello steadied one foot in the underworld, kept a
dizzying number of ventures afloat and somehow managed to avoid
criminal prosecution since the mid-1980s, according to records. Among
the downsides: Santaniello found himself a perennial feed box for
several mob regimes. He paid up to thousands of dollars per week in
shakedown money to organized crime figures, occasionally being forced to
jockey between competing bosses, court records show.
Santaniello was cited as a victim of extortion in two trials: the
prosecution of Nigro and the Geases plus a subsequent 2012 trial of
Emilio Fusco, a co-conspirator who fled to his native Italy and delayed
his own proceeding. Fusco was acquitted of the Bruno and Westerman
murders but convicted of racketeering, extortion and other crimes and
sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Throughout Santaniello's prolific history lesson of local mob feuds,
deals and transitions, hand-written notes by the FBI show - he had
little or nothing to say about Nigro.
"As law enforcement was well aware - at least in Massachusetts -
Santaniello was Bologna's victim. He had nothing to say about Arthur
Nigro," his lawyer wrote.
Tomorrow, a summary of last-ditch motions by Fotios Geas and Nigro to set aside their sentences and the government's response.

1 comment:

This all bullshit. James Santaniello and his cousins Billy Santaniello and Vinny Santaniello are involved in organized crime because they run it and get protection from law enforcement. The deal in drugs and buy their protection.